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It’s just quite simply reality. No state on Earth is going to allow a country on its border to make an alliance with a foreign country that it find hostile. We invaded Cuba because of missiles on our border, and Cuba is separated from the USA by the Gulf of Mexico and was and is a much weaker state. Had it been Canada or Mexico gone full communist and been importing weapons and getting trained by the USSR, it would be considered an act of war.
Ukraine is the same thing for Russia. It sucks for the post-Soviet states of Eastern Europe, but because they exist next to Russia, they’re not entirely free to do anything they want. If they get too friendly with the West, they’re getting the same thing. And on the other hand, Europe, Mexico, Canada, and South America are in our sphere of influence and we don’t allow them to get too far off reservation. We’re powerful enough to do so mostly by sanctions and soft power, but the longevity of a regime in our sphere of influence that openly sides with our enemies isn’t that long.
No, we didn't. Bay of Pigs predated the Missile Crisis, and there was no subsequent invasion. Cuba is still communist. If the best equivalence one can draw is a failed covert op sixty years ago against a recently established dictator, America is looking pretty good by comparison.
Cuba isn't even a good comparison. Cuba was openly authoritarian and there's a fairly obvious asymmetry between nuclear missiles and a trade deal with the EU. A more appropriate one would probably be the coup targeting Arbenz in Guatemala. And, you know, the coup in Guatemala was completely unjustifiable. It didn't advance US interests or security in any meaningful way - it was simply a manifestation of anti-communist paranoia and extremely petty corporate interests.
The reservation must be pretty fucking massive, then, because we've had anti-American governments in Latin America for decades. European governments routinely ignore US desires and if they told the US to get out the we would do so.
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And yet we failed to overthrow the government of Cuba and it remains communist to this day. Just because every country wishes they had a sphere of influence and will take steps to obtain one doesn't mean we are under any obligation to give it to them. European nations freely ignored the Monroe Doctrine for decades after it was promulgated until they were too weak relative to the US to do so.
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